EW's "Showbituary" for S60

The newest Entertainment Weekly has a little "Showbituary" for Studio 60, saying it "was a precocious infant, spouting wonky arguments about gay marriage, religious intolerance and Hurrican Katrina. The development of its sense of humor, however, was stunted as it found amusement in spit-takes and impressions of Cape Fear-era Juliette Lewis and it delievered topical jokes that were like "New Yorker" articles with punchlines tacked on. Even bolstered by Perry, Peet and Whitford, the show strugged under its imposing father; Sorkin seemed to use his baby to grind axes against bloggers, network testing and TV scribes who resent it when their brilliant boss does all the writing. In December, admid ratings struggles, S60 hit adolescance hard, abrubtly transforming into a romantic comedy with Whitford pursuing Peet like some kind of witty David Berkowitz. This awkward phase attracted few viewers and the show was left abandoned, left to live out its last episodes in the summer doldrums, a broken show prone, in its last sad days, to grumbling about the war in Afghanistan, troubled pregnancies and drug abuse. It will be mourned by Rob Reiner, the Fruit of the Loom guys and Dolphin Girl."

I know, some may find it snarky but it does hit it on the head that all we wanted was a nice drama on the backstage goings-on of a skit comedy show, not a lecture on how know-it-all Hollywood is and that quality should always be held over how much money a network can make. Kind of makes it all the sadder to see all that potential lost.

Wow. I totally disagree with EW's content. The show was not juvenile. It was smart. If anything, it was a struggle of real artists who took themselves seriously in a world where money talks; where the interest and opinion of society decides what is worth watching and suporting.

If anything, it's an argument that society does indeedinfluences media, not vice versa, as many people claim. Like in the K&R story, it is argued that the greater influence lies in what is percieved instead of the actual truth (as with the example of the radio station twisting the Karl Rove sketch into something it wasn't even about).

It was about integrity versus the higher dollar. It was about the struggle to bring the country quality TV when all people want is brainless reality programs. (Age of Love, anyone?)

If anything, this show hit too close to home. However, the main reason this show faltered right from the beginning is because it went up against CSI: Miami. No show has a flipping chance against that show.

It demanded too much of its audience and it was expensive. You had to be intelligent, well-informed, and attentive to really get it. Without insulting anyone, most peole don't meet all of those criteria when they sit down to watch TV. If you're not smart, you're going to miss a lot of the good stuff right off the bat. If you don't pay attention to the news, much of the topical humor will blast right by you, too. The dialog goes at such a quick pace that if you don't really pay attention, you miss too much for the show to make sense.

Most people, even if they are smart enough and well-informed enough to get it don't want to put that much effort in to watching a TV show at the end of a long day. So they choose instead to numb their minds with reality dreck that lets them feel morally and intellectually superior to the deceitful, back-stabbing, morons who compete for cash, prizes, and true love on current reality programs. Since people didn't tune in, it didn't draw the ratings it needed to make it financially worthwhile for NBC.

As was mentioned in another thread, a more 'high brow' network such as Bravo or even PBS would have been a better home for Studio 60, but I'm not sure it would ever have gotten off the ground there, either, because those networks don't have the cash flow to pump money into a series with such big-name stars. How many of us want to put that much effort into watching a cast of nobodies, no matter how good the writing?

It demanded too much of its audience and it was expensive. You had to be intelligent, well-informed, and attentive to really get it. Without insulting anyone, most peole don't meet all of those criteria when they sit down to watch TV. If you're not smart, you're going to miss a lot of the good stuff right off the bat. If you don't pay attention to the news, much of the topical humor will blast right by you, too. The dialog goes at such a quick pace that if you don't really pay attention, you miss too much for the show to make sense.

Most people, even if they are smart enough and well-informed enough to get it don't want to put that much effort in to watching a TV show at the end of a long day. So they choose instead to numb their minds with reality dreck that lets them feel morally and intellectually superior to the deceitful, back-stabbing, morons who compete for cash, prizes, and true love on current reality programs. Since people didn't tune in, it didn't draw the ratings it needed to make it financially worthwhile for NBC.

As was mentioned in another thread, a more 'high brow' network such as Bravo or even PBS would have been a better home for Studio 60, but I'm not sure it would ever have gotten off the ground there, either, because those networks don't have the cash flow to pump money into a series with such big-name stars. How many of us want to put that much effort into watching a cast of nobodies, no matter how good the writing?

You landed right on the mark with that analogy, without such an outstanding cast to pull off the writing and direction the show wouldn't have been what it was... and it was far to expensive to make without attracting the addled masses for higher ad revenue... it was an enjoyable insight into the network world and I'm happy Sorkin got to get his message across and we got at least the full season to enjoy.

In the end, networks like NBS just want to make profit and we have to accept that... hopefully we will find something else intellectually stimulating to take its place but i wouldn't count on it.

Wanna know the REAL reason Studio 60 failed? It demanded too much of its audience and it was expensive. You had to be intelligent, well-informed, and attentive to really get it. Without insulting anyone, most peole don't meet all of those criteria when they sit down to watch TV. If you're not smart, you're going to miss a lot of the good stuff right off the bat. If you don't pay attention to the news, much of the topical humor will blast right by you, too. The dialog goes at such a quick pace that if you don't really pay attention, you miss too much for the show to make sense. Most people, even if they are smart enough and well-informed enough to get it don't want to put that much effort in to watching a TV show at the end of a long day. So they choose instead to numb their minds with reality dreck that lets them feel morally and intellectually superior to the deceitful, back-stabbing, morons who compete for cash, prizes, and true love on current reality programs. Since people didn't tune in, it didn't draw the ratings it needed to make it financially worthwhile for NBC. As was mentioned in another thread, a more 'high brow' network such as Bravo or even PBS would have been a better home for Studio 60, but I'm not sure it would ever have gotten off the ground there, either, because those networks don't have the cash flow to pump money into a series with such big-name stars. How many of us want to put that much effort into watching a cast of nobodies, no matter how good the writing?

You landed right on the mark with that analogy, without such an outstanding cast to pull off the writing and direction the show wouldn't have been what it was... and it was far to expensive to make without attracting the addled masses for higher ad revenue... it was an enjoyable insight into the network world and I'm happy Sorkin got to get his message across and we got at least the full season to enjoy. In the end, networks like NBS just want to make profit and we have to accept that... hopefully we will find something else intellectually stimulating to take its place but i wouldn't count on it.

I'm not so sure. The West Wing was the same way, very complicated with the bare minimum of explanations of the political proceedings or references. But despite that, it still managed to stay afloat for 7 full seasons. S60 isn't nearly as intellectual as WW. Although then again, maybe S60's achilles heel with that was because of the subject matter; politics is bound to complex and nuanced, TV production isn't neccesarily seen in the same way.